NSF Intl. Celebrates 65-Year Anniversary

NSF Intl. is celebrating 65 years of aiming to protect and improve human health and safety worldwide.

Since its founding, NSF Intl. has written national human health standards and certified products to help ensure the safety of food and drinking water, dietary supplements and consumer goods. NSF is a World Health Organization Collaborating Centre for Food and Water Safety and Indoor Environment.

NSF's heritage dates back to November 1944 when two professors from the University of Michigan’s School of Public Health, and a public health official from nearby Toledo, Ohio, saw a need to standardize the health requirements for commercial food service equipment. The transparent, consensus-based process they established to develop NSF’s first standards for the sanitation of soda fountain and luncheonette equipment became the process by which NSF developed other human health and safety standards.

Since that time, NSF has developed more than 72 American national standards to protect food and water, dietary supplements, pools and spas, and consumer goods. NSF also tests and certifies a wide range of products including food service equipment, organic foods, plastic and plumbing products, water filters, nutritional ingredients, home appliances, kitchen utensils, green building materials and pool and spa equipment. The organization has more than 850 employees, operating in more than 120 countries, with certification programs for multiple products.

The NSF Water Treatment and Distribution Systems program verifies drinking water treatment chemicals and drinking water system components to ensure these products do not contribute contaminants to drinking water that could cause adverse health effects.

As NSF develops new human health and environmental programs and expands operations to other regions of the world, it said it remains dedicated to its mission of “protecting and improving human health.”